Mountain - Plains - St. Louis safety

My wife and I will be in St. Louis in mid-May for a few days and would like to bike the riverfront trail. But we have also seen that downtown St. Louis has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Should we be concerned?

Thanks
Glenn in Omaha

If you're not familiar with the area downtown, I would suggest you steer clear! One safe trail you can enjoy is Grant's Trail in St. Louis county. Here's a link for it -
http://bikegrantstrail.com/

Also, if you're up for more of a challenge, the Vadalabene in Illinois is a great day trip, as well.
http://www.mv24.org/river.html

The St. Louis river trail is very safe! I ride it several times a week, and have not once had any problems. It's well insulated for the "bad" parts of the city thanks to the levy wall and river dependent business. You can park in a garage just a tad north of the arch, and from there head north to the beginning of the trail. The trail can take you all the way up to Pere Marquette IL. and back, roughly 100 miles round trip. At the very least, take the trail North until you get to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. It's worth checking out.

Grant's Trail is nice, and they've recently expanded it, but the whole thing is pretty flat and boring. There is a little off shoot from Grant's that has some hill's, and the surrounding area is nice for riding if you can stay off the busier streets.

Have fun in while in the STL! Maybe I'll see you on the trail!

We certainly want to do the River Trail, so it's good to know that it is safe. Don't think we are up for the 100 mile trek yet, but do want to make it to the Old Chain Bridge.

In researching other routes, we consided riding from Creve Couer Lake to partway along the Katy Trail. How does that compare to Grant's Trail?

Thanks for the info.
Glenn in Omaha

Creve Couer to the Katy Trail would be a nice ride. The Katy Trail is mostly made up of crushed limestone, something to consider if you ride skinny race tires. The Katy Trail is flat, but with some nice scenery.

It's not that Grant's Trail is bad, it's just a little dull, and far too short of a ride, being only about 8miles long. 16miles round trip.

I take back what I said about Vadalabene. It's been a few years since I've been up there, & now I know why! I highly recommend it if you have a MTB with bullet proof tires. The entrance to the trail is like going off road at the Piaza parking lot. The further down you go, the better, & the hills are great as you get near Pere Marquette. Otherwise, keep an eye out for broken glass & trash in general up the river road. A street sweeper is highly needed in some spots, along with an asphault truck!

Now Grants Trail I'm attached too, because it's right behind my house, & I've sweet talked my neighbor into letting me sneak thru his fence to get to it. I enjoy the scenery very much (read women in tights jogging & rollerblading)! I usually end up doing it a couple of times in a row to get in a good workout.

I've just never felt safe downtown, whether on a bike or in a car. But, ymmv...

Will your visit be over a weekend? There are some organized rides through an organization called Trailnet, usually about every other weekend or so until the heat of summer.

Here is an article from the RFT [local weekly free mag]: http://bestof.riverfronttimes.com/bestof/award.php?award=101239

For some other ideas, depending upon exactly what areas you will be in and how much time you have, Forest Park is nice [and just a beautiful area to boot], as is the areas near Alton, IL [to the north of StL], Babler Memorial State Park to the west, and then off of I-44 in the Eureka area are a few areas [Greensfelder, West Tyson, Route 66, Castlewood, etc.].

When ya are done, please post a review and some photos!

Will your visit be over a weekend? There are some organized rides through an organization called Trailnet, usually about every other weekend or so until the heat of summer.

Probably not. I say probably, because it will depend on the weather. We are actually going to Memphis. If the weather is good on the way down (from Omaha), we will stop then, otherwise we will try again on the way home. In either case, it will be in the middle of the week.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Glenn in Omaha

When ya are done, please post a review and some photos!

Assuming I remember the camera this time (!) I will. Thanks for the suggestions.

Glenn in Omaha

Some great suggestions above. I wanted to clarify for out of town folks what the statistics really mean when you see the articles for "MOST DANGEROUS CITY" online or in the paper year after year and St. Louis always ranks right at the top, and because of demographics probably always will. Years ago, St. Louis decided to freeze the outskirts of the city limits permanently, unlike most other major cities in the country which have gobbled up space in every direction as it sees fit to encompass new development. Additionally, the CITY population is one of the absolute lowest of any major metropolitan area nationally. The gentleman that creates the list of most dangerous cities uses the following criteria, number of violent crimes vs. population within the city limits. St. Louis is at a MAJOR disadvantage when looking at it from this perspective. St. Louis, like many other cities, has experienced massive urban sprawl, so much so that only about 3.75% of the St. Louis area population lives within the city, although most of any city's violent crime still occurs within the city limits. Compare these stats to other metro areas nationally and you'll see quite a disparity. Here's the key, the more appropriate way to conduct this study is to expand the study to number of violent crimes within an area comprised of where about 90% of a metro area's population lives and the crimes that occur within that area. When looking at these statistics, St. Louis falls near the bottom of the list at about #134 on the list.
We can look at numbers all day long, the bottom line is St. Louis and it's surrounding counties has perpetually been one of the SAFEST places to live in the country.

If you can do the Katy Trail, I highly recommend it. Most parts of downtown are safe - All the crime goes on in a small area, but its enough to put us #1 on the map for crime. If you think you're in a bad neighborhood GET OUT, but if you stay downtown you'll be fine. (do not go into east St. Louis. Bad Idea)

YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THE KATY TRAIL. I ride weldon springs to augusta all the time - nice, short, 10 mile ride - Everyone here should try it.